Use of Style Shifting and Codeswitching in the English...

Use of Style Shifting and Codeswitching in the English Language Style shifting in a language and codeswitching between languages are used for many different reasons. In this essay I will examine both the process of style shifting in English and codeswitching between English and other languages. I will look at the functions these processes serve, the reasons for their occurrence and the linguistic changes that occur in these processes. Style Shifting Style shifting is a method of altering your speech to suit a particular situation. The situation can dictate the style of speech you choose to use. If you are in an informal situation you will probably speak differently, perhaps more†¦show more content†¦His pronunciation of ‘better’, for example, sounded more like ‘be’er’ (p.304 course book). This may have been because he was younger than his informants. He also discovered that he used the glottal stop more often when speaking to men as opposed to women, which suggests that the gender of the audience also affects the way one speaks. Howard Giles’ accommodation theory argues that if you wish to distance yourself from the people you are speaking to then your speech can diverge from that of your interlocutor. In the same way, sometimes your speech will converge towards the person you are speaking to, particularly if your wish to get closer to your interlocutor. One’s speaking style can also be affected by the accent of the person you are talking to. Peter Trudgill and Nikolas Coupland both argue that speakers sometimes try to sound similar to the people they are speaking to, as in Coupland’s analysis of a travel agent’s speech in Cardiff (p.304 course book). Coupland claims that the travel agent’s own speech was almost enough to indicate the social and educational background of the customer. Le Page and Tabouret Keller claim that the desire to identify with, or distance yourself from, a particular social group influences the way one speaks. Although they also allow for fl uctuation of usage and different motivations for changing the style of speech (p.311Show MoreRelated Codeswitching from English Essays1226 Words   |  5 PagesThe use of codeswitching between English and other languages is examined from a sociolinguistic perspective. It will be shown that codeswitching is instinctive and achieves overarching objectives such as serving the outcome of speech, defining identity and indirectly delineating aspects of the relationship between the participants, it lubricates the conversation by making it more fluid, and when English is used, brings clarity and precision, particularly to formal arrangements. Finally codeswitchingRead MoreWhy People Code Switch2449 Words   |  10 Pagessolidarity, social class, topic, affection, and persuasion in motivating switching codes. I will use different approaches and case-studies conducted by researchers from inside and outside Lebanon to back up my discussion. Why do People Code-switch 3 Why do People Code-switch: A Sociolinguistic Approach 1. Introduction: A person is said to be multilingual if he or she is competent in more than one language. Multilingualism is usually the result of many factors, such as colonisation, interculturalRead MoreTeaching Second / Foreign Language From Contractive Analysis Point Of View And Discusses How It Helps Develop Learners5957 Words   |  24 Pagessecond/foreign language from contractive analysis point of view and discusses how it helps develop learners interlanguage pragmatics. To this end first contrastive analysis hypothesis and its implications in teaching foreign languages as well as he notion of L1 transfer are reviewed. Then learner s language system and the way it changes over time is investigated. The importance of pragmatics in language use and how it can change meaning in a given context is also discussed. To make use of code-switchingRead MoreThe Speech Community.Pdf11808 Words   |  48 PagesThe Speech Community Peter L. Patrick Dept. of Language and Linguistics University of Essex Wivenhoe Park Colchester CO4 3SQ United Kingdom Email: patrickp@essex.ac.uk http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/ This article will appear in JK Chambers, P Trudgill N Schilling-Estes (eds.), Handbook of language variation and change. Oxford: Blackwell. ABSTRACT: empirical linguistics, is at the intersection of many principal problems in sociolinguistic theory and method. This paper traces its historyRead MoreThe Benefit of Code Switching14750 Words   |  59 PagesChapter 1 Introduction Code-switching, which may be defined as the alternation between two or more languages in a speaker’s speech, occurs naturally in the scheme of bilingualism. Studies have reported that code-switching often happened subconsciously; ‘people may not be aware that they have switched, or be able to report, following a conversation, which code they used for a particular topic’ (Wardaugh, 1998, p. 103). However, although bilingual speakers claim that code-switching is an unconscious